ESB hikes prices on EV charging by up to 15pc, with some drivers paying €7 more per charge
The cost of publicly charging an electric car is being increased by up to 15pc by Ireland's biggest provider.
ESB cars, which has the most public charging points in the country, is adding 7 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) across all of its tariffs, raising the cost of charging an electric car by up to €7.
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Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
How upcoming price changes will affect your EV running costs
The ESB 's e-Cars electric car charging service has recently raised its prices, across each cost band, by 7c per kWh. That's a roughly 15 per cent rise, and it means that in some cases you could be paying €40 or more to charge an average family EV on a public charger. Such costs are a serious barrier to EV uptake, as a huge part of the sales pitch for the switch to electric cars, quite apart from the climate change imperative, has been how much cheaper they are to 'fuel' than a diesel or petrol-powered car. That price advantage, which has also been something of a reward for the less convenient nature of an EV (at least with the current charging network), is starting to be eroded now. True, charging at home still allows you to make some fairly dramatic savings compared to the cost of running a combustion-engined car. READ MORE As one EV expert recently told us: 'You might double your electricity bill, but you'll still be quids-in compared to the price of petrol or diesel.' There's a looming issue on the horizon, however. The cost of domestic electricity is being kept somewhat under control by the fact that, in the energy cost crisis which followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Irish Government cut the VAT on electricity from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent. That cut has been renewed over and over, but it's due to run out on October 31st this year, which means people might be waking up to not only a Halloween hangover, but higher electricity – and therefore EV charging – costs. How much extra is this going to cost you? Well, let's take as a baseline Electric Ireland 's headline per-kilowatt costs for domestic electricity. Those are, currently, 30.53c per kWh on the day rate (8am to 11pm), 15.05c for night rate (11pm to 8am), and there's a 'night boost' rate of 8.84c per kWh between 2am and 4am. [ EV Q&A: How do I know if I'm getting good economy from an electric car? Opens in new window ] So, let's take a couple of popular electric cars. There's the Volkswagen ID.4, which uses a 77kWh battery; a Hyundai Inster, which uses a 49kWh battery, and a Kia EV3, which in its basic form comes with a 58kWh battery. So, at current rates, a 0-100 per cent charge in the VW will cost you €23 on the day rate, and €10.6 assuming you're making the most of that 'night boost' two hours worth of charging. The smaller Inster's costs are €14.95 on the day rate, and just €6.44 overnight. The Kia EVs's charging costs are €17.70 on day rate, and €7.63 on mixed night rate. So, what happens to those figures when/if the VAT rate goes up? Prices per kWh would rise to 31.79c for the day rate, 15.67c for the night rate, and 9.20c for the night boost. It means a full day-rate charge of the ID.4 rises to €24.47, and €11.10 on mixed night rate. The Hyundai's figures become €15.57 day and €6.71 night, while the Kia's rise to €18.43 day and €8.12 night. Are these rises enough to nullify EV running costs versus petrol or diesel? Not even slightly. On a full charge, the VW ID.4 can generally offer around 450km of real-world range. The Hyundai should manage about 320km on a full charge, and the Kia about 360km. The most efficient diesel- or hybrid-engined cars will return about five litres per 100km fuel consumption, which means you'd need to spend €39 on petrol, or €38 on diesel, to equal the VW's range; €28.32 in petrol or €27.04 in diesel to match the Hyundai; and €31.86 in petrol or €30.42 in diesel to match the Kia. Clearly from those figures, you're making a significant saving when charging on the day rate, and cutting your fuel costs by between a half and a third on night rates. When it comes to public charging, however, the cost calculation of running an EV is entirely turned on its head. A return to 13.5 per cent VAT for public charging will mean that the standard ESB e-Cars rate for 'slow' kerbside chargers, of between 7.4 and 22kW AC power, will rise from the current 59c to 61.4c per kWh, while using a 'fast' charger of between 50kW and 150kW on DC power will climb to 66.6c per kWh, and 'very fast' 150kW+ DC chargers will rise to 68.72c per kWh. This will be particularly bad news for anyone without access to a driveway or other off-street parking that allows them to charge overnight at home, such as those people who live in terraced housing, and who rely on public charging. It means a full charge of the VW ID.4 on a kerbside 'slow' charger will, in October, rise to €47.27, considerably more than you'd have to pay if you were running on petrol or diesel. For the Hyundai, that cost would be €30, and for the Kia it will rise to €36.22; again, both are in theory more expensive than an equivalent combustion-engined car for the same notional mileage. For fast charging, the news is also bad. Most users will use fast chargers to top up their batteries as a 'get you home' measure, so the amount of energy, in kWh, taken on each time will vary considerably between one driver and another. However, we can use the baseline 10-80 per cent charge to give us an idea of the potential costs. In the VW, a 10-80 per cent charge, assuming you're using a 150kW charger, and assuming that the VAT change goes through, will cost you €35.89, for an estimated 315km of range (assuming that 450km real-world range figure). For the same distance, assuming once again average fuel economy of five litres per 100km in the most efficient diesel or hybrid cars, that would cost you €27.87 in petrol or €26.60 in diesel. For the Hyundai, the charging cost on a 150kW charger will be €22.80, gaining you about 224km of range, which would in theory cost you €19.80 in petrol, or €18.90 in diesel. For the Kia, the figures are €27 of charging for about 250km of range, which would cost you roughly €22.10 in petrol, or €21.12 in diesel. You can reduce the cost of charging at an ESB public charger by signing up for a €4.79 monthly subscription. This would bring down the cost, assuming a return to the 13.5 per cent VAT rate, to 56.1c for slow chargers, 61.44c for fast chargers and 63.5c for very fast chargers. That means a 0-100 per cent slow charge would cost €43.19 for the VW; €27.48 for the Hyundai; and €32.53 for the Kia. Fast charging, assuming you use a 150kW charger and charge from 10-80 per cent, would cost €32.50 for the VW; €21.07 for the Hyundai; and €25.12 for the Kia. In terms of other providers, a return to the 13.5 per cent VAT rate would push the price of charging at Ionity, on its very fast 350kW chargers, from 73c per kWh to 76c per kWh (or from 53c to 55.18c per kWh if you have a monthly Ionity subscription). That would mean a cost of €40.96 for a 10-80 per cent charge in the VW (€29.70 with subscription); €26 for the Hyundai (€18.92 on subscription); and €30.08 for the Kia (€22.40 on subscription). [ EV Q&A: Why doesn't Ireland use roadside furniture for charging electric vehicles? Opens in new window ] It is, of course, worth remembering that those are notional figures, and your actual experience of electric range versus petrol or diesel fuel economy may vary considerably, but it should give you some idea of just how expensive public charging of an electric car has become, and what an important factor it is to have home charging. It also underlines the cold corner, in EV terms, into which those with no access to off-street parking at home have been pushed. The Irish Times has been told by Cork City Council , for instance, that when it comes to figuring out what to do for people who can't charge at home: 'The strategy does not make provision to allow private electric vehicle charging cables either in pavement or overhead to be installed across public footpaths or roads to facilitate home charging.' In other words, those people will just have to rely on a public charging network, which is becoming so expensive that it makes no financial sense to switch to an EV. Whether or not VAT on electricity returns to 13.5 per cent in October, that's a serious bar to EV adoption, which will have to be tackled.
Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
'My electricity bill is like a heart attack - the government's done nothing'
I don't know about you but I feel I am going to have a heart attack every time my electricity bill comes through the door. I am with the ESB for my sins - I just couldn't be bothered moving to another supplier - and am sick and tired of being ripped off every two months. My electricity bill has doubled in the last two years and no matter how many lights we stitch off or dishes we hand wash instead of using the dishwasher, we can't seem to get it down. But if you think things are bad for us, what about small businesses? If you speak to the owners of these little shops, cafes, and small manufacturers all over the country, they will tell you that the soaring energy costs are the biggest single threat to their survival. One man told me how his electricity costs effectively doubled from €10,000 to €20,000 a month and he had no idea how he was going to survive. It is the same story the length and breadth of this land and the Government is all talk and no action, and is doing absolutely nothing about it. Minister and after Minister blame the war in Ukraine for the soaring cost of gas and this in turn increases our electricity costs. But what these useless politicians forget is that we the people own the ESB and the Minister responsible and the Government has the power to interfere and force ESB management to cut prices if they so wish. They could start by cutting all VAT on electricity indefinitely and this would make a huge difference. The faceless mandarins in the Department of Finance would try to stop it but should be slapped down. The country is awash with money and can well afford it. The anger and outrage over electricity prices have also now spread to the multi-nationals and big business in Ireland. Yesterday it was revealed that Intel, which employs over 5,000 people in this country, met with the Taoiseach Micheal Martin and a number of ministers warning about increasing energy costs. The Government promised to sort it out but so far has done nothing. The alarm bells should be ringing because why would these companies stay here if they can't afford to run their businesses in Ireland because of runaway, uncontrollable costs. The fact is that Ireland has the highest electricity prices in the whole of Europe. Yet the irony is you would expect this if the main market supplier was a privately owned utility company like they have in the UK. However we are talking about the ESB here which 100pc owned by you and me the Irish taxpayer, so something can be done to stop the constant rip up but it is not happening. And then to make things worse the Government decides to let the ESB increase prices even further to pay for future capital investment to improve the electricity grid down the road. The energy regulator agreed to it when they know that the people and employers are pinned to their collar trying to pay their bloody bill every month or two. It came as no surprise to me or anyone else except the Government perhaps that a record 300,000 people are now in arrears on their electricity and gas bills. Well what the hell does the Government expect with the prices we are being asked to pay. The figures were obtained by the Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan and the party is doing excellent work highlighting this issue. The Government rather than forcing the ESB to slash prices dealt with the problem in the run up to the General Election last year by giving families energy credits to offset the rising electricity costs. It gave ordinary people some relief but now they are refusing to do it again in the run up to this year's budget. Both Micheal Martin and Paschal Donohue are using Trump's trade tariffs as a pathetic excuse not to do it. Yet the same politicians have no problem spending up to one billion quid cutting the VAT rate in the hospitality sector. Would it not be better spending this cash helping working class people who really need it? The ESB say they don't cut people off who can't pay their bills - but trust me in the end they do. That little electricity bill coming through the door is now the biggest worry for most people every night. It's time to bloody do something and cut the rates once and for all. For more of the latest breaking news from the Irish Mirror check out our homepage by clicking here
Irish Independent
5 days ago
- Irish Independent
Louth Oireachtas members to meet with ESB on Drogheda supply concerns
Delays in securing connections to the ESB network were highlighted at the July meeting of Louth County Council, with the local authority confirming it was 'aware of the energy constraint issues in north Drogheda.' The issue centres around future demands from new housing projects in the area, which will be requiring connections to the electricity network. Concerns have been raised by Louth councillors and TD's as to how this could impact the next phase of the Port Access Northern Cross Route (PANCR) which will be developer led, and is expected to include a raft of new housing for the area. asked the ESB for an update on network availability in north Drogheda. A spokesperson said: 'ESB Networks is actively engaged on interim and medium-term development plans in the context of meeting future demand for electricity connections in County Louth. ESB Networks have met several developers with development plans in the north Drogheda area in recent weeks to discuss their short, medium and long-term programmes and to provide updates on ESB's plans to meet their electricity supply requirements. ESB Networks are in the process of making connection offers to all new connection applications that it received in the Drogheda area up to mid-June 2025. ESB Networks are currently assessing any applications received post this date and hope to provide updates to the applicants in the coming weeks. ESB Networks managers are scheduled to meet Oireachtas members from Co Louth this week as part of continuing engagement with local stakeholders, including developers and Louth County Council officials.'
